Snow Leopard
The snow leopard, known for its beautiful, thick fur, has a white, yellowish or soft gray coat with ringed spots of black on brown. The markings help camouflage it from prey. With their thick coats, heavy fur-lined tails and paws covered with fur, snow leopards are perfectly adapted to the cold and dry habitats in which they live. Snow leopards have powerful legs and are tremendous leapers, able to jump as far as 50 feet (15 meters). They use their long tails for balance and as blankets to cover sensitive body parts against the severe mountain chill. Diet and Hunting Snow leopards prey upon the blue sheep (bharal) of Tibet and the Himalaya, as well as the mountain ibex found over most of the rest of their range. Though these powerful predators can kill animals three times their weight, they also eat smaller fare, such as marmots, hares, and game birds. One Indian snow leopard, protected and observed in a national park, is reported to have consumed five blue sheep, nine Tibetan woolly hares, twenty-five marmots, five domestic goats, one domestic sheep, and fifteen birds in a single year. Population Very rare in most of their range, an estimated 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards are left in the wild, with 600 - 700 in zoos around the world. Exact numbers in the wild have not been determined due to the snow leopard’s shy nature. Range Snow leopards are found at altitudes between 9,800 and 17,000 feet in the high, rugged mountains of Central Asia. Their range spans from Afghanistan to Kazakstan and Russia in the north to India and China in the east. China contains about 60% of snow leopard habitat. They have already disappeared from certain parts of Mongolia, which is part of their historic range. Behavior Snow leopards prefer to inhabit steep cliff areas, rocky outcrops and ravines. Such habitats provide them with the camouflage they need to ambush unsuspecting prey. They stalk their prey and usually spring from a distance of 20 - 50 feet. Their long and powerful hind limbs help snow leopards leap up to 30 feet, which is six times their body length. Mostly active at dawn and dusk, snow leopards are rarely seen in the wild. Unlike other big cats, snow leopards are unable to roar. Solitary in nature, they pair only during the breeding season. Reproduction Snow leopards mate between January and mid-March. Females give birth to 2-3 cubs in rocky dens lined with their fur. The young follow their mother on hunts at three months and remain with her through their first winter. Conservation As these numbers indicate, snow leopards sometimes have a taste for domestic animals, which has led to killings of the big cats by herders. These endangered cats appear to be in dramatic decline because of such killings, and due to poaching driven by illegal trades in pelts and in body parts used for traditional Chinese medicine. Vanishing habitat and the decline of the cats' large mammal prey are also contributing factors. Gallery Snow_leopard_portrait.jpg|Close Up of a Male Snow Leopard IndiaWebCat4.jpg potd-snow-leopard_3407561b.jpg|Mother and Cub Lightmatter_snowleopard.jpg|Snow Leopard in the San Diego Zoo snow-leopard-rescue-2.jpg _92004772_c1f13484-54cb-46e4-8ab3-7cf2f03f45d9.jpg Photo_2.jpg p7HRiw3.jpg|Snow Leopard covered in Snow 39aebb9ff952ee2847ccd68d50bf3156.jpg|2 Snow Leopards Playing 8eca5c07901f3d060a204e3cc37d61d9.jpg|Adorable! snowleopardtrust-623.jpg|Snow Leopard in Gobi Desert SnowLeopard.jpg Snow leopard-600x400.jpg Snow_Leopards_(The_Wild_Thornberrys).jpg|The Wild Thornberrys Animal_Jam_Snow_Leopard.jpg Snow_Leopard_TLG.png|The Lion Guard Category:Mammals Category:Carnivores Category:Predators Category:Leopards Category:Asian Animals Category:Endangered Species Category:Cats Category:The Lion Guard Animals Category:The Wild Thornberrys Animals Category:Wild Kratts Animals